In 1286 Edward I. assembled a parliament at Exeter, whilst in 1371 the
Black Prince brought here his royal prisoner of France and stayed
several days. The Duchess of Clarence, accompanied by many royal
adherents, took refuge within the city walls in 1469. It was besieged by
Sir William Courtenay, who eventually raised it on the mediation of the
clergy.
The next event of importance not only affected Exeter, but threw into
agitation the whole of the British Empire. Of two impostors that laid
claim to the Crown which Henry VII. was wearing, the second was a youth
called Perkin Warbeck. He bore such a striking resemblance to the
Plantagenets that he had been secretly instructed to impersonate Richard
Duke of York, the younger brother of Edward V., who it was pretended had
escaped from the Tower and from the fate that overtook his brother. So
ingratiating was his manner that he successfully enlisted the aid of the
Duchess of Burgundy, who was holding her court at Brussels. His first
attempt to land in England was in Kent; his second in Ireland. Both
ventures being unsuccessful, he tried Scotland. There he convinced King
James IV. that he was a true Plantagenet, and through him he raised an
army and invaded England. However, the two kings having come to an
understanding, Warbeck retired to Ireland. He there received an
invitation from the Cornishmen, acting on which he landed at Whitsand
Bay in that county.
At Bodmin he was joined by a considerable force of men, with whom he
marched and laid siege to Exeter in the year 1497. At the approach of
the royal forces his followers were dispersed, whilst he fled to
Beaulieu in Hampshire. Two years afterwards he ended his career at
Tyburn.
In 1536 Exeter was erected a county of itself. The year 1549 saw the
investment of the city by a numerous body of popish adherents, from whom
it was relieved by John Lord Russell in August. On the very day of its
investment, the second of July, the strange spectacle of Welch being
hanged from the tower of his own church, in which he had been accustomed
to officiate as vicar, took place. He suffered on the charge of being a
Cornish rebel. During the parliamentary war it was taken and retaken,
finally to be surrendered to the Roundheads in 1646. Throughout it all
the citizens were warm supporters of the Stuarts, as they had always
been to the Crown. So much so was their loyalty that in a previous
reign, that of Elizabeth, she presented to the Corporation, with many
other marks of her royal favour, the motto "Semper Fidelis." During the
stay of the parliamentary troops under General Fairfax, the Cathedral
was ruthlessly defaced and divided into places of worship for
Presbyterians and Independents. The palace adjoining was also turned
into barracks, and the Chapter House converted into stables. During
these troubles Queen Henrietta Maria, the consort of Charles I., had
returned to Exeter from Oxford, believing herself to be in danger from
the hatred with which she feared she was regarded by the people. Here
she gave birth to her youngest child, the Princess Henrietta. Leaving
the infant at Exeter she escaped to France.
In the Guildhall, which is a picturesque Elizabethan building, are two
full-length portraits: one depicts the features of General Monk, Duke of
Albemarle, painted by Sir Peter Lely; the other was given by Charles II.
to the Corporation as some slight acknowledgment of the city's loyalty.
It represents the portrait of his sister, Princess Henrietta, then
Duchess of Orleans. James II. was the next sovereign to bestow favour,
which he did by establishing a mint in 1688. His influence was
shortlived, for on the arrival of the Prince of Orange in the August of
the same year the inhabitants readily submitted. This prince is credited
with establishing a mint at Exeter, or it may be he simply completed or
confirmed that of his predecessor. The following year saw him on the
throne of the kingdom as William III., which ratified the declaration he
had caused to be read by Burnet in the Cathedral of Exeter. Though
visited by subsequent reigning princes, their presence may be said to
have conferred more honour than to have promoted any material changes to
the prosperity of Exeter.
The mainstay of the city is the glorious Cathedral, and the quaintness
of some of its houses and streets is unique. They afford a great
attraction to visitors, who are willing to go a long railway journey
west simply to see and compare the merits and demerits of the Cathedral
with the many others dotted throughout Great Britain.
The actual date of the Cathedral is in 1049. Its origin, as we have
seen, occasioned no turning of the soil to receive foundations, but
merely the conventual church of the monks, removed by Edward the
Confessor to his new abbey at Westminster, adapted to meet the
requirements of Bishop Leofric and his secular canons appointed to the
united Sees of Devon and Cornwall. The head of the Diocese was at
Exeter. What was the size and character of the converted monastic church
at that time no two authorities seem able to agree. According to an old
record at Oxford its lease soon ran out, for in the year 1112 a new
church was commenced by Bishop Warlewast, continued by his successors,
and finally completed by Bishop Marshall, who died in 1206. They are
supposed to have carried out the plan of Warlewast; but as the whole of
the fabric, with the exception of the towers, was entirely rebuilt in
1280, the original design is chiefly conjectural. The body of the church
probably corresponded in character with the two massive transeptal
towers. These are quite a feature in that, with the exception of those
at the collegiate church of Ottery in Devonshire, they exist nowhere
else in England. This arrangement of the towers did away with the
necessity of either a central tower or lantern. It enabled the architect
to extend a long unbroken roof throughout the nave and choir. The
aisles, with the intervention of richly clustered pillars and pointed
arches springing from their caps, range along on either side of the
nave. With the sets of ribs starting each from a clustered centre, and
spreading out as they soar towards the highest limit of the roof, as
grand an exposition of beauty and noble gradations of perspective lines,
as conceived by architects of the Decorative period, have been realised.
The period of this rebuilding was commenced in 1280 with the Early
English style of architecture by Bishop Quivil, and was completed in
1369 in the best years of the Decorated style, just a few years before
the Perpendicular came into vogue. It is said that this cathedral served
as a model for the church at Ottery. Though this cathedral in miniature
resembles the great edifice in Exeter in certain points, notably the
transeptal towers, yet, if the principal part of it dates from 1260, it
can hardly, with the one exception, have been a copy of the chief church
of the Diocese. The Early English work of Ottery church takes, by
comparison of dates, priority over that at Exeter by some twenty years.
[Illustration: EXETER